Blown Glass

           I have been working on a new series of blown and sculpted objects for the last two years.  I am creating 2-3cm thick vessels that serve as tools for me to manipulate color and light.  I use applications of 2 or 3 transparent colors to create pleasing combinations.  Colors in glass have properties of both additive and subtractive color systems.  Light reflected from the surface of glass particularly opaque glass uses a primarily subtractive color system, but light passing through transparent glass becomes malleable.  Technically light passing through layers of transparent color are filtered, but successive layers of filtering create new colors, and layers of light projected on a surface can become additive.  Colors need to be harmonious as they rest next to each other, and again as they filter light passing through layers.

            Thick transparent glass bends and shapes light on it way to the viewer’s eye.  Curves in the form can focus or disperse light based on the shape.  Objects in the background take on importance within the structure of the vessel, and can be repeated, altered or transformed as the image moves through the glass.  Finally the texture and form of the light must align with the overall shape and line of the object itself.

            Taken together each piece becomes a symphony of light, color and form.  Although each piece is static, by moving around the piece colors and shapes change for the viewer.  The heavy glass bends the light, and colors change as overlapping colors filter, transmit, and reveal images in the surrounding environment. 

            Recently I have been exploring the differences between a hot sculpted surface, and engraved surfaces in the glass as well.  I am really interested in both the fluid glassy nature of texture applied while the glass is hot, and the sharp polished or satin surface left behind using traditional engraving techniques.